Life is an Eternal Chase
by szhismine
Summary: Sequel to Fear: The Last Resort. Harper angst (what else would you expect?)


Life is an Eternal Chase  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own Andromeda.  
  
Rating: PG to PG-13  
  
Spoilers: Slight spoilers for 'The Leper's Kiss', 'Slipfighter the Dogs of War' and 'The Shards of Rimni'. (As in slight I mean a "quick reference" to something in those episodes.)  
  
Summary: What happens when a scientist brings back the dead? Lots of guilt and wasted emotions.  
  
Author's Note: this is a sequel to Fear: The Last Resort. You better read that one first. You can find it here http://www.slipstreambbs.com/ubb/Forum5/HTML/001593.html. ~~~~~~*~~~~~  
  
Stress is common, love is.  
  
Stress is damned, love is too.  
  
Stress is hardship, so is love.  
  
What is the difference? Love can be bliss. - Brendan Lahey  
  
"Life on Earth" C.Y 10,076 ~~~~~~~~~ *Cut to Dylan's office*  
  
"It's her Dylan, I know it!" Harper exclaimed. Dylan was sitting in his chair studying the frantic young man. A problem with the Armenians made Harper believe that his ex-love, Jenny, was still alive, when Dylan knew Harper had seen her die.  
  
"Harper, you said you saw her die. It can't be her. It probably just looks like her," Dylan argued. The Armenians believed that they were seeing their dead walking around. The Commonwealth government had managed to get a contact who could help. They asked the Andromeda crew to go meet this contact. Harper is convinced the contact is Jenny.  
  
"Dylan, believe me. I knew her well. And it makes sense, considering the Armenians are seeing their former friends."  
  
"Dylan," Andromeda appeared as a hologram, "I have some new information concering these strange appearances."  
  
*Cut to Command*  
  
"Doctor Revirimo?" Beka asked. Andromeda made a picture of a doctor appear on the screen.  
  
"He's a geneticist. He's also a little crazy. Over the past five years he's been accused of stealing corpses from all over the known worlds. Including Earth," she said.  
  
"So what, you think he pulled a Frankenstein and brought people back to life?" Harper asked, intruigued. Rommie nodded.  
  
"Right now, his laboratory is situated in the northern parts of Armenia. He refuses to talk to anybody. He has an enourmous base that used to belong to the Armenian military. According to the information i'm processing, it's full of hundreds of live corpses. And they're starting to get mad," she said.  
  
"So they're thinking of a revolt," Dylan said. "That's good. It will make our job of stopping him a lot easier."  
  
Everyone looked at him, shocked. "Um . . . Dylan, do we really have to stop him?" Beka asked innocently.  
  
"What?"  
  
"Well, think about it. If we leave him continue his work, and let his . . . patients go free, then people can be reunited with their friends and loved ones. People could live forever. We can teach other people to do the 'coming-back-from-the-dead' trick, and the universe would be alot happier."  
  
"Or, we stop him, destroy his research, and let the circle of life continue," Dylan replied.  
  
"Come on Beka, he's bringing people back from the dead. It's not natural. And people will be confused if they see someone they knew. Chaos could erupt and civilisation can fall!"  
  
"Dylan, you really have to stop exaggerating. Civilisation can't fall if people who were dead are alive. It'll probably be the oppposite," Harper said.  
  
"Look, this isn't a debate. We are going to Armenia. We are going to stop Doctor Revirimo. We are going to see what we'll do with the . . . what do we call them?" Dylan asked.  
  
Trance shrugged. "The refugees?"  
  
"Thank you. We'll see what we'll do with the refugees when we get there. No arguments, no questions." And with that, Dylan stormed off of Command. Everyone let out a sigh.  
  
*Cut to the Maru*  
  
"You want me to come with you?" Harper exclaimed, hardly believing it. And wishing he oculdn't believe it. Dylan had asked him--and him alone--to help him stop the crazy Armenian doctor.  
  
"If our contact is who you say she is, then I'm gonna need your help in trusting her. I can't always trust the people that I work with, and I can't always be sure if they're telling the truth or not," Dylan said.  
  
"Well, yeah, I can understand that. Believe me, I can," Harper agreed. "It's just..."  
  
"What?"  
  
"Well, if it is Jenny . . . I haven't seen her in a long time, hell she's supposed to be dead, what am I supposed to say to her? 'Hi Jen, it's me, Seamus Harper. Remember when you died in my arms?'" Harper mocked.  
  
"Harper, I thought you wanted to come with me."  
  
"Well . . . I changed my mind."  
  
"Too bad, you're coming," Dylan ordered.  
  
*Cut to the Andromeda*  
  
"Andromeda, this is the Maru requesting permission to depart," Dylan said an hour later.  
  
"Maru, you are good to go," Rommie replied.  
  
Dylan nodded. "We'll meet you in the Armenian system in twelve hours. Beka, you're in charge." With that, the screen closed. Beka turned to Rommie. "So, how long do you think Trance will stay hidden on the Maru?" she asked.  
  
"I have no idea, but i'm figuring it'll be a while before they realize she's there," Rommie replied.  
  
*Cut to the Maru*  
  
"Alright Trance, what are you doing here?" Dylan asked her five minutes after they left the Andromeda. Him and Harper were in the engine room when they noticed Trance was there with them. They don't know how they knew she was there, all they knew was she was there.  
  
"Are you mad at me?" she asked nervously.  
  
"N--Trance, why do you always ask that?" Dylan asked her.  
  
"I just wanna make sure, that's all," she replied.  
  
"Well, i'm not complaining that my golden goddess is here," Harper said, flashing Trance a smile. Trance just rolled her eyes, but appreciated it all the same.  
  
"Okay, well the more the merrier. Mr. Harper, take us into slipstream."  
  
"You're the boss, boss," Harper replied and walked out of the room. Dylan held Trance back.  
  
"What are you really doing here?" he asked.  
  
"I came to make sure nothing goes wrong," she replied. Just then, the Maru shook from side to side, throwing Dylan and Trance off their feet.  
  
"I think something is wrong," Dylan commented as he and Trance ran to the cockpit.  
  
When they arrived, they saw Harper doing his best to pilot away from three nietzschean fighters and one destroyer. The ship lurched to the right as Harper dodged their missiles. Then another explosion made the ship shake.  
  
"The engines are losing anti-protons! If we don't fix it, we're going to explode!" Trance yelled.  
  
"Dylan, would you mind piloting while I go fix this bucket of bolts?" Harper asked.  
  
"Not at all," he replied. Harper unstrapped himself from the pilot's seat and ran towards the engine room. Dylan quickly sat down and started evasive maneuvers.  
  
Steam was spewing out of the numerous pipes that were dangling in the tattered engine room. Harper narrowly missed being burned from one of them. He finally managed to reach safety at the other end. He quickly analyzed the situation and mentally calculated the time and resources it would take to repair everything if they got out in one piece. He climbed the first few rungs of the ladder and turned a switch off. Nothing happened. 'This can't be good,' Harper thought to himself. He pressed a few buttons and tried again. Still nothing. Harper let out an exhasperated sigh. He jumped off the ladder and stumbled over to the console. The ship turned upside down and Harper barely had time to grab onto the railing. He opened the console, took out his nano-manipulator, and started playing around. A few seconds later he re-closed the console and went back up the ladder. He turned the switch off. This time, a hissing was heard as the vavles closed, sealing off the anti-protons. Harper let out the breath he was holding. Suddenly the wall in front of him exploded, and he got thrown off the ladder and knocked onto the floor, unconsious.  
  
"Dylan, we're in slipstream range!" Trance yelled over the din.  
  
"Slipstream now!" Dylan announced. The ship lurched forward as they entered slipstream.  
  
About a minute later, they exited slipstream with none of the nietzschean ships in tow.  
  
"Whew, we made it," Trance said, relieved.  
  
"Harper must have repaired the engines," Dylan replied. There was an uncomfortable silence between the two.  
  
"HARPER!" They exclaimed at the same time, and ran to the engine room.  
  
When they arrived, they saw Harper lying on the floor, unconcious, with a bunch of debris around him. Trance and Dylan pushed aside the debris and knelt next to Harper.  
  
"Harper, are you alright?" Trance asked while taking his wrist to check for a pulse. Harper gave a weak moan, and his eyes fluttered, but he didn't reply.  
  
"Dylan, help me get him on a bunk," Trance said. Together they lifted him up. They put each of his arms around their shoulders and took him to a bunk.  
  
"Trance, will he be alight?" Dylan asked five minutes later.  
  
Trance was sitting next to Harper, with a medical kit open at her feet. "I think he will," she replied. "He has a concussion and a sprained wrist, not to mention a few cuts, burns, and bruises, but other than that he'll be alright. I gave him a sedative to help with the pain. He'll be awake in a few hours."  
  
Dylan nodded. "Good. Tell me if anything changes. I'll be taking us to Armenia." With that he left.  
  
~~~~  
  
"Ow," Harper said as he slowly woke up. He opened his eyes to see Trance sitting next to him.  
  
"We've got to stop meeting like this," Trance joked. Harper laughed in spite of himself.  
  
"Actually, i'm starting to get used to it," he replied. Trance helped him sit up. He touched the big bandage on his forehead. "Man, what happened? How long was I out of it?"  
  
"Three hours. We were attacked. Dylan managed to get us to slipstream."  
  
"Yeah, after I repaired the engines," Harper muttered.  
  
"What was that?"  
  
"Nothing," Harper replied hastily. Just then, Dylan walked in.  
  
"Mr. Harper, you're awake. Good. We've arrived at Armenia. We're about ten miles from the doctor's base. We'll leave in about an hour." Dylan glanced down at Harper. "Harper, I know you're worried about seeing Jenny. But she's all we've got. And i'm gonna need your help."  
  
Harper thought about it for a moment, then sighed. "Alright, [I]fine[/I]."  
  
Dylan smiled. "Thank you, Harper."  
  
~~~~~~~~  
  
"Dylan, are we there yet?" Trance asked warily for the fifteenth time. Her feet made squishy noises each time she stepped in the marshy grass that surrounded her. Dylan was up ahead and Harper was dragging his feet behind them.  
  
"No, we're not. We've only got a couple of minutes more to walk until we're clear of this bog."  
  
"That's what you said an hour ago," Harper moaned.  
  
"Well, this time I mean it," Dylan snapped back, irritated. Harper fell silent.  
  
They kept walking for another half hour, their feet dragging across the wet marsh. Finally, they were clear of it. Since it was almost nightfall, they made camp.  
  
~~~~~~~~  
  
It was just after midnight. The crew was sleeping peacefully under the hazy stars.  
  
They didn't notice a hooded figure creeping around their camp.  
  
The figure sneaked around them easily, like a serpent slithering towards it's prey. She stopped when she reached Harper, and for a moment she thought back to the time before she was killed. She let out a sigh.  
  
Dylan woke up with a start. He glanced around his surroundings. He saw the figure hovering over them, slowly drawing her knife. He jumped up and pointed his forcelance at her.  
  
"What do you think you're doing?" he said.  
  
At these words, Harper and Trance got startled out of their weary sleeps. It only took them a couple of seconds before they realized what was going on. They stood up and pointed their guns at the figure.  
  
"Who are you?" Dylan asked again.  
  
"None of your business," she replied.  
  
Dylan tried to see what her face looked like under her hood, but he couldn't. All he could tell is that she kept glancing around, as if she was expecting someone.  
  
"Any reason why you're so nervous?" Dylan asked.  
  
The girl stayed silent for a few moments before finally putting her knife back where it belonged. "Look, i'll get to the point. I know why you're here. Everyone knows why you're here, including doctor Revirimo. He sent a bunch of us out to stop you."  
  
"But you don't share the same feelings as him?" he guessed.  
  
She nodded. "Right. The doctor doesn't know it, but we're planning a revolt. When the doctor said you had arrived, we almost couldn't keep our excitement hidden."  
  
"And why do you want to help us help you?" Dylan asked, starting to get confused.  
  
The hooded figured approached him. "Because we're his prisoners. We're freaks. We shouldn't even [B]BE[/B] here," she yelled, angry. "We're supposed to be dead, but we're not. We don't want to keep living like this. Although I don't mind getting a second chance, I want it in freedom. All my life, i've been a prisoner one way or another."  
  
Dylan felt a pang of guilt. He could imagine what she meant. He lowered his forcelance. "What's the plan?"  
  
"We take you into our base as prisoners. Once in there, you'll be in cells. Tomorrow at noon, the doctor is going to go out and find some more corpses. He's doing some kind of weird experiment. We don't even want to go into his labratory."  
  
"But I have a feeling we're gonna have to," Dylan finished.  
  
"Right. Once in the labratory, we'll be able to get the power off-line. A total shut down. All is files and information deleted instantly. He never kept anything on flexi's. When he comes back and sees he's powerless, he'll be ruined."  
  
"Sounds like a plan to me," Dylan agreed.  
  
The girl whistled twice. Ten other hooded figures who were hidden sprang up.  
  
~~~~~ "Well, well, well, what do we have here?" A voice asked as the group approached the doors.  
  
The girl stopped in her tracks. "Doctor! We, uh . . . just came from finding Captain Hunt and his crew, just as you said."  
  
"Yes, I can see that. And it looks to me like it was easy to capture the famous hero. Captain Hunt, who eluded capture many times. Captain Hunt, who managed to escape off a prison planet unharmed. Captain Hunt, who fought against the Dragans and the Magog, and [I]survived[/I]!" he mocked. "Honestly, just because i'm insane doesn't mean I don't keep in touch with the real world."  
  
"Reviving dead people isn't the real world," Dylan said calmly.  
  
Doctor Revirimo let out a low growl. He grabbed the girl's arm. "Yes, well, that doesn't mean I can't have any fun. You there! Escort Captain Hunt and his faithful comrads to a cell, or else you fearless leader here--" he nodded towards the girl, "--will become something you could have never imagined. Now go!" he exclaimed. The hooded figures pushed Dylan, Harper, and Trance into the castle. When they were out of sight, the doctor started laughing. He dragged the girl with him, down into his forbidden lab.  
  
"Now. Let's see if plotting against me was well worth it, [I]Jenny[/I]," he laughed. He took her to an abandoned cell and locked her in there, but not before taking her cloak off of her, revealing long, dark blond hair, and deep green eyes. She was pale, but extremely beautiful. Then he threw the key out of an open window. He left.  
  
Jenny noticed that there were many other cells, with other people in them. She tried to open the door, but it was no use. So she started talking to a few people, and they started planning.  
  
"So, what do we do now?" Harper asked, completely bored out of his mind.  
  
Dylan sighed. "I have no idea."  
  
"Trance, don't you have some idea what we could do?" Harper asked, desperate.  
  
"I don't know, but we have to think of something soon," she said.  
  
Just then, the doctor appeared. "Why hello there. How's it going?" he asked sarcastically.  
  
"Look, just tell us what you want," Dylan said.  
  
"Alright, I will. I want you to kill yourselves."  
  
"What?" Dylan asked.  
  
"What?" Harper asked, right after that.  
  
"You people are just the kind that I need to finish my latest expirement. Don't worry, i'll bring you back to life."  
  
"Are you crazy? We are not going to kill ourselves."  
  
"Fine then. I'll just kill you myself." He raised his gun.  
  
Suddenly, an alarm went off. "Warning. Prisoners escaping in sector 7-G."  
  
"My labratory! No!" the doctor exclaimed. He ran off.  
  
When he was gone, Dylan opened the panel on the wall and tried to open he lock. Harper stopped him. "Allow me," he said, and fiddled around with it. Nothing happened. "Oh screw it!" he exclaimed, and he slammed his hand into the controls. The door opened.  
  
"Harper, are you alright?" Dylan asked when they were free. Harper rammed his hand out of the panel. It was burned and bleeding. Harper stared at it.  
  
"Oh yeah, never better," he replied sarcastically. Trance checked it over.  
  
"It'll be fine," she diagnosed.  
  
Dylan nodded. "Good. Let's go find sector 7-G." With that the three crewmembers ran off where the doctor went.  
  
When they arrived, it was utter chaos. There were broken machines and mechanical junk strewn everywhere. Wires were dangling all over. There were several alarms going at the same time, most of them for no good reason.  
  
"Gotcha," a voice growled behind them.  
  
They turned around. Revirimo was a few feet away, holding a girl.  
  
"Let me go, you miserable bastard," she whined.  
  
Dylan recognized her voice as the girl who had helped them. He also recognized her face...  
  
Dylan quickly took out the flexi with the information on it. That girl was supposed to be their contact. And she was. But that's not all she was...  
  
"Jenny," Harper muttered under his breath. Dylan and Trance looked at him. Harper blushed. "I . . . I never thought I would see her again," he started. "She died, and . . . ya know . . . what chance would I have of ever seeing her face one last time . . ." he whispered. He closed his eyes to fight the tears that were threatening to poor down his face. "I was hoping not to believe it, but what choice did I have?"  
  
"Harper," Dylan put his hand on Harper's shoulder. "It's alright. You did have a choice. But sometimes our options are limited. I wish things could have been different for you. And . . . I'm sorry I got you into this," Dylan said, sorry.  
  
But Harper shook his head. "Nah, it's alright. There's no way you could have known . . ."  
  
"But you were right, Harper. We should have listened to you," Trance said.  
  
Harper gave a weak smile. "It's alright. Besides, without me you never would have been able to get the door open."  
  
"Speaking of that--"  
  
"SHUT UP!" Revirimo yelled, interupting the conversation. "Can't you see I have a hostage here? And all you people can talk about is your pathetic little lives."  
  
"Hey, don't call our lives pathetic when you're the one bringing people back from the dead. I would say it gives a whole new meaning to the word 'God', but even God has his limits," Harper replied sarcastically.  
  
That was the last straw for doctor Revirimo.  
  
Growling, he pushed Jenny aside violently. He quickly grabbed his gun and fired, as quickly as a flash, at Harper. Harper move aside, but the bullet managed to get him in his hand.  
  
The same hand he had punched the panel with.  
  
Harper paused, feeling a mighty blast of pain, so painful he couldn't even yell. He just stood there, shock apparent on his face, while grasping his mutated hand by the wrist. Now it was even more burned, and bleeding freely. It was barely recognizable as a hand. Revirimo raised his gun again.  
  
Dylan pushed Harper out of the line of fire, behind a storage bin. Dylan kept him covered while firing at Revirimo, who had also ducked behind a storage bin.  
  
When Dylan stopped firing, he glanced at Harper's hand, which was now being tended to by Trance.  
  
Harper was in bad shape. Beads of sweat were rolling down his face. His spiky hair was plastered onto his head. He had a hard time breathing. He looked like he was going to faint.  
  
A bunch of sparks near Dylan's head forced him to look back at Revirimo, who had started firing again. This time, a bullet grazed Dylan's shoulder, but Dylan was too angry to care. He shot a couple of times at Revirimo, which forced the crazed doctor to draw back.  
  
A noise beside him startled him. Jenny was there. She managed to crawl up to them, and she was looking at Harper with a sad look in her eyes.  
  
"Jenny?" Dylan asked. She didn't do anything. She only stared at Harper. "Jenny?" he tried again, louder this time. Jenny glanced at him. "What're you doing here?"  
  
"I'm here to help you. There's a medical deck about fifteen feet away from here. You can get him there while I distract Revirimo."  
  
Dylan considered her words. "Okay, but i'll distract him."  
  
"Dylan--"  
  
"Jenny, I don't know the exact history between you and Harper, but I know he wants to see you again," Dylan said.  
  
Jenny smiled. "I guess so. Alright, then, but be careful." She and Trance grabbed Harper and helped him towards the med deck. Dylan looked at their retreating backs before turning towards Revirimo.  
  
"Where's your little friend gone?" Revirimo mocked.  
  
"Look doctor. There's still time to stop this madness. I don't know what possessed you to do something like this, but it's gonna stop. Right here, right now."  
  
Revirimo let out a high-pitched laugh. "I don't think so, captian."  
  
"Oh yeah? Why not?"  
  
Revirimo paused before answering. Dylan took advantage of the situation by shooting at him. Revirimo fell to the floor, dead. Dylan looked at him for a moment before going to the med deck.  
  
When he arrived, Harper was already unconcious. Trance was tending to his hand, which was now being wrapped in bandages. Jenny was fiddling with the equipment.  
  
"How is he?" Dylan asked.  
  
"He has third-degree burns on his hand. I had to wash his gun wound, then stitch it. The index finger is broken. Several nerves have been completely fried or paralyzed. He might never be able to move his hand again," Trance reported. "I gave him something for the pain. He'll be awake in an hour or two," she said.  
  
"Can't you do something for his hand? Some kind of treatment?"  
  
Trance shook her head. "No. There isn't any treatment for nerve damage like this. There might be a few things I can try, but nothing is garanteed. Of course, this is all estimation. His hand might be intact enough to have minimal abilities, but I'm not sure."  
  
"Keep working on it, Trance," Dylan said. "You'll find something." Dylan walked over to Jenny. "What do we do now?" he asked.  
  
"That depends. Where's doctor Revirimo?"  
  
"He's dead."  
  
"And are you sure he won't come back?"  
  
Dylan frowned. "What do you mean?"  
  
Jenny sighed. "It's happened before. Revirimo would . . . accidentaly electrocute himself, or drown in the bathtub if he would fall asleep . . . and he kept coming back. He's like a recurring nightmare. He just won't go away . . ." she trailed off. She closed her eyes, trying to fight the tears. "We don't know how he's done it. I think that whatever made us alive, he has on him, so if he dies . . ."  
  
"He'll come back," Dylan finished. "How long does it usually take for him to come alive?"  
  
"Four hours. Five, at the most."  
  
"So we have that much time to help you and everyone else and get ourselves out of here. Stay here. I'll put Revirimo in a place that's out of the way. So whenever he wakes up, he won't know where we are. Or he might not be able to get out."  
  
Jenny nodded, so Dylan left.  
  
Fifteen minutes later, Dylan had dragged Revirimo into a storage closet. He looked around for an air shaft. When he found it, he took out his forcelance and welded it into the wall. Then he closed the door, and welded that, too.  
  
"Let's see how you'll get out of that, [I]doctor[/I]," he mumbled.  
  
Meanwhile, Jenny was absent-mindedly stroking Harper's spiky hair. Trance noticed this. "So, how did you meet him?" she asked.  
  
Jenny glanced at her. "We were five. The nietzscheans were conducting a raid. They were looking for young girls to grow up as slaves." Jenny rolled her eyes. "Anyway, a bunch of them were chasing me. Since I was so young, I couldn't run fast. They were on top of me when a . . . a shrilling sound came out of nowhere," she said, remembering.  
  
[b]*Flashback*[/b]  
  
Jenny screamed. The nietzscheans were right behind her. She could hardly breathe. A nietzschean grabbed her.  
  
Suddenly, a loud shrilling noise came from behind a dumpster. The nietzscheans covered their ears, trying to block the high-frequency noise. They fell to the ground in pain. They went unconsious, and they died. Jenny was startled.  
  
The person who was making the noise came out from the dumpster. He was a young boy, about the same age as Jenny. He was rather short and skinny, with dirty blond hair.  
  
"You should be careful, ya know," he said. "The ubers are looking for anything that has two legs and no bones sticking outta their arms. What happened?"  
  
Jenny blushed. "They attacked. I ran. You saved me. I'm Jenny."  
  
"I'm Seamus Harper. You can call me Shay."  
  
[b]*End flashback*[/b]  
  
"He saved you from nietzscheans?" Trance said, smiling.  
  
Jenny nodded. "Yup. More than once. He would always worry about other people's safety than his own . . ."  
  
"Harper is a brave person. He'll get through this," Trance agreed. Just then, Dylan arrived back.  
  
"Revirimo has been contained," Dylan said.  
  
Jenny smiled. "Good. Now we can start worrying about the real threat."  
  
Dylan frowned. "Real threat?"  
  
TBC 


End file.
